Chef Thomas Keller

Well, cooking is a simple equation. It doesn't matter if it's me or you; it's about ingredients and execution. Ingredients are paramount. I grew up in a time where nobody knew a chef or what a chef was. The cook is still considered a domestic label by the US Labor Department, not a bonafide profession. You went in a grocery store and found iceberg lettuce and maybe green tomato. The vegetables were in an aisle full of cans, that's where my mother bought her vegetables. It was a bit of a departure from what we see today. What we see today is a result of this celebration of chefs and food. Chefs are the reason we have the diversity of our food in our grocery stores and markets today. They have been driving the quality.

My grandmother and my father who came from pre-World War II always went to the market. The milkman delivered milk everyday. We went to the baker to buy your bread. You went to the meat market to buy your meat. Grocery stores were just beginning back then. Not a lot of this mass grocery stores, you had to go to specific individuals, specific stores to get the fish, get your meat, get your bread, get your vegetables. They were really connected with food. You had to be. You had to spend time shopping and preparing food. There wasn't convenience food. source

Another thing I can tell people is that they need to be patient and persistent. I'm not the most patient person. We have to learn to be patient. Be more patient with ourselves to make sure that we take the time to actually learn something. We all want to know something. Who reads the instructions anymore, right? You buy something and you just start at it right away before you've even looked at the booklet. So, patience is really important, being patient with yourself. Learning some skills, learning how to use a knife, learning how to chop vegetables, learning how to roast a chicken, learning how to season, learning the importance of all these things that are going to impact your final result. Don't think about the final result. Enjoy the process. Cooking is a process. Cooking should be fun. If you don't get it right the first time, you know, don't think you are a failure. If you do get it right the first time, you're probably lucky or you're a really good cook. Patience and persistence are really important in that process. And spend money. Spend money to support the farmers. We all, again, our culture, we want to have the very best and spend the very least. We're always looking for that. My mother told me a long time ago, you get what you pay for.

If the $1.50 tomato is better than the 50-cent tomato, buy the $1.50 tomato. It's worth it. You're supporting a farmer somewhere who's really dedicated to what he is doing.  source